LABOUR LAWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 24, 23 October 1907, Page 4

LABOUR LAWS.

:.'.; ;; ;'-PREVENTION OF STRIKES. ■ ' t:.ii,t-(raqii ''pun.'OWN. coiir.j!srpi;DEKT.) ■• 'V \p-~ '■ '''!['■,; ■■<>■: • Napier,' -October 22. . - : ■; ;in .'the. course : cf his'openihg address at i ■tlio'aiiVmal. meeting of the New Zealand ■ ' Fedcnvtcd'Builders and.. Contractors. 'Indus: ;. :trijil Association of iSmployors held' Hero to- ; 'day,Mi - -'"W. H. Bennett, president, said !■ .his remarks would'hot bo complete without ■i.,somd" reference to the trouble/that arose in '. trado during tho year. It •' hadr.be.cn'Vassertod oVer' and over, again at ' their! anjiual meetings, that only one side was i. -ibound : "by.; the '.'Arbitration Courts awards; ■'. '.that tlie.wp'rknian could not'bq compelled to ■ ixrork" against hie will, and that tho Court : Jiad'.'lio s,, staiiditig if 'the breaker of the law. ',' .iJia'd'''nothing''wh'drowith,to r pfiy 'tho fine's it ; might' finflict; ■: It'was ! cdrtAinly" ! repugnant i. to riia'riy : employers','-as 'woUas'to employees, ■, "that a'man who'hhd sought-to better'his ; position y and '-.broken tho" law' in doing so, should bo put in prison if ho had 1 no means' >.. ,to niect the costs, . Ho (tho speaker), at any. i ,rate;-'thought' tho unions' should' bo made , to :■! ..bear,' not' only" , thb' : hlamo,' ,, but" ; 'als6 costs, ;.' -for : it r 'was; .utter nonsense to say ; that a i strike;could take 1 place witlioiit tlioir knpw-. I. ledge; or-conniyanco; Ho,.believed ■ that , it i, v.'itliin any union's power to stop' >' !,a strike.if they thought fit;''; "'I bcliovoj-' i said" the' president, '■" that'umler tho , cxisti ing law any man moro coinpetont thftiV tho i 'ordinary rim of his' follows can always coml'.: limrid.ii'higher wago.t It is simply for him , 'to prove.'his ability' to ' his employer and' ; he can. aljvays get an _ equivalent for his . yj)rl,v,an'(l'employers,claim Win right to •(Hβi' 'crirnin'iito in this matter as regards tho in--1 competont worker. : All employers' arn look- , ■ ing for pxperts in thoir varioii3 trades. 1 TlioVe arc'so'.many , at 'thn font of the ladi derj'and so few at the top, attributable; I 1 'bclibve in many casos to tho doparturo from - tho Arbitration Act,-as it was conceived by r its author, : Mr. Reeves. ,, In connection with , itho proposed further amendrnonts to the Con-' . 'ciliatioiv and Arbitration Acts, tho Bxccutivb r took ; the advice of the .Association, and they . bolibved it was generally felfc that the Min- , ister for Labouf had made an honest att tempt to reincdy ■ some , of the ■ defects that i had shown 'themselves in' the administration - '"and'vth'by were ready to assist him togivo! 3- ; tho Act.'-as it might emerge ; from tho Hdusb, i a fair and impartial trial."